Watch a young Elon Musk take delivery of his McLaren F1 in 1999

A 28-year-old Musk receives his million-dollar supercar.

Today, Elon Musk is a multi-billionare whose name is synonymous with spaceships, solar panels, and high-performance electric cars. But way back in 1999, Musk was just a 28-year-old millionaire flush with money from the dot-com boom. And he celebrated in fitting fashion: by buying a $1 million McLaren F1.

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Valleywag dug up this profile of a younger, somewhat gawkier Musk, back when he'd made $400 million selling Zip2, an online publishing software for newspapers.

Yes, 1999 was a long time ago.

In this video, Musk talks up X.com, the nascent online banking system that, through a number of famously profitable business transactions, begat PayPal, which begat swimming pools full of money for Musk.

"My fear is that we become spoiled brats, that we lose a sense of appreciation and perspective," Musk's then-fiancee (now ex-wife) Justine Wilson says in the video. "It's a million dollars for a car. It's decadent."

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